The UNI Panthers hope to avoid a letdown when they visit South Dakota State this weekend. The Panthers are coming off a 24-13 win at Iowa State and a victory on Saturday would give Mark Farley his first 3-0 start as the Panther coach. Farley says they initially said the first and second games were critical to them, and now the third one is and he says they have to find a way to not let the win at I-S-U be a distraction, but be a momentum builder.
Farley says this will be a big game for a South Dakota State program that will join the Gateway Conference in 2008. He says they expect a sellout as he believes they’re the first 1-AA team to come to the stadium. Farley says his teams still made errors in the win and needs to work to overcome them.
Senior quarterback Eric Sanders is off to a great start. The Oelwein native has completed 78 percent of his passes through two games with three touchdown strikes. Farley describes Sanders as very savvy, and fits their system very well. Farley says Sanders knows very well how to check through the various receivers and knows where they will be to get open. The Panthers won last year’s matchup with South Dakota State 27-17 in Cedar Falls.